Review on a schedule and when things change. Use a quarterly light review and an annual deep review. Trigger a review after an incident, a material product change, a new region, or a large vendor change.

Collect proofs as you work, assign owners, and rehearse the story. Keep controls mapped to risks, store logs and approvals in one place, and practice the walk through before the auditor arrives.

Projects fail when the goal is “get a cert,” not “enable revenue and reduce risk.” Without an executive sponsor and named owners, habits don’t change. Over-engineered tools and manual evidence create hidden debt. Fix with clear outcomes, accountable leads, short sprints, and early automation.

Don’t treat compliance as a one-time project. Avoid copy-paste templates you don’t follow and manual spreadsheets you can’t trust. Under-documentation, skipped training, and ignored vendor risk create incidents and takedowns. Fix with a clear owner, risk-based scope, usable SOPs, and automation.

Lost revenue comes first: stalled security reviews, pipeline blocked by missing attestations, churn after incidents. Add legal fees, remediation work, regulator penalties, and investor doubt. One delayed enterprise contract can cost more than a right-sized program.